India's impressive 49-run win over West Indies in the first women's T20I on Sunday in Navi Mumbai saw their skipper Harmanpreet Kaur leaving the field, but her deputy Smriti Mandhana confirmed later that the captain was recovering and receiving medical attention, without elaborating on it.
Harmanpreet scored 13 not out in India's total of 195 for 4, but remained absent on the field during the Windies' run-chase, with Mandhana taking over the leadership duty.
Mandhana's 33-ball 54 and Jemimah Rodrigues's 73 off 35 balls powered India to a big total.
"She (Harmanpreet) is doing fine. She is being taken care of by the medical team and hopefully will be fine soon," Mandhana said after India's win, but didn't provide any more details about Harmanpreet's illness or injury.
Talking about India's batting effort, Mandhana commended fellow opener Uma Chetry in their 50-run opening stand: "Uma came in and got us off to a good start, Jemi came in and continued that."
Indian bowlers then restricted the West Indies to 146 for 7, with Titas Sadhu leading the bowling charts with figures of 3 for 37, while Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav took two wickets each.
"Credit to the bowlers with so much dew around. Even after winning we have to go back and review where we can be better, yes, we could have got 200 today," Mandhana added.
Jemimah, meanwhile, acknowledged the mental challenges of maintaining freshness whilst playing non-stop cricket since competing in Australia.
Following a 0-3 defeat in the ODI series in Australia, the Indian team had minimal preparation time after their final match concluded on December 11.
Talking about her knock, Rodrigues said: "Yesterday I had a chat with Smriti about how to pace my innings. My game plan was simple. Singles off every ball. Loose balls are a bonus. Sir had told me to bat through the end, so my plan was to take it five overs at a time.
"We could have pushed for another ten runs because we know what we get against the West Indies, because of Dottin and even Joseph. I am proud of the way we bowled with the dew."
The second T20I will be played on Tuesday.
